h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Descartes showed us how to deal with such demons.

A3796301 (for the Scouts)

Page updated, and hopefully, repeats removed and everything orderly.

I hope.

*fingers crossed*

This reads excellently now!

I have a wee problem with "As you step out of the car, the voltage between your body and the car builds up, from 10,000 or possibly even 20,000 volts." To my mind it should build up *to* 10,000 or possibly even 20,000 volts.

I also still have a problem with the dangling car-discharger. What is it doing, if the charge built up between you and your seat is preserved from discharge by you staying put (if it only becomes unstable when you exit your seat)?

The word 'explodable' looks strange; I expect the right word is in fact 'explosive'.

But a wonderful job of translation none the less!

Oh and one more thing; a lot of the paragraphs should (I think) be divided up. The Sub might do this for you.

Thank you!

I'll sort those bits & bobs in the morning, am off to bed now...

Traveller in Time viewing those little men ing through the wire

" Now it looks like your work noce work with 'the opposite charge'

How about refrasing 'current electricity' to 'dynamic electricity' ?
It is not technical or anyway wrong, but it is a little more clear perhaps. (I keep reading 'current' as 'now', 'from recent date')

'The Triboelectric Series'
Great topic could be a Guide Entry

Oh perhpas some fun fact: discharges can trigger (smoke- ) alarms. "

OK, GB, I've given it a detailed read through.

Content:

"The spark is painful because it's extremely hot"

I thought it was painful because the electricity goes straight into your pain sensors, overloading them. Electric shock machines can hurt even though there is no heating involved.

Some of your "car cures" don't fit in with your explanation at all. I suggest you remove them:

- Your description of the earthing straps (discharge wire) suggests that it is charge building up on the car as it drives along that causes the zap, but you've already said it's not caused by that.

- Touching things during your journey shouldn't do anything, because you've already said that no charge builds up while you are seated; it is only as you leave that the charge builds up.

- Going naked might cure the problem, but going barefoot shouldn't.

I really think you should remove the section: The Triboelectric Series. It is out of place in a casual and explanatory entry like this.

I suggest that the following three sentences are completely unnecessary and can be removed:

"Protons, neutrons and electrons are very different from each other. They each have their own characteristics. One of these is called an electrical charge."


h2g2 Style:

Header "It Bit Me" -- it is not normally permitted to have a header at the very start of the entry. You could change this to:


It bit me!



Typos, grammar and choice of words:

from 10,000 or possibly even 20,000 volts --> to 10,000 or possibly even 20,000 volts (already pointed out by R)

I suggest a new paragraph before "As you walk across a carpet".

every few meters --> every few metres

Insert a comma after "you may need to keep buying more"

many carpets and upholstery in cars --> the carpets and upholstery in many cars

an window cleaner bottle --> a window cleaner bottle

irrestible --> irresistible

G

<> - I can't find this anywhere
whereabouts is it, TiT?

I've done all your recommended changes Gnomon, thanks very much, but I can't find the word "meters" anywhere, even using CTRL-F

I was asked in PR to write something about the Triboelectric Series, it wasn't originally in. I'm reluctant to remove it because I found it interesting, and I've already quoted it in everyday conversation since I wrote it, and I certainly understand static electric discharges a lot more now.
Someone else is quite welcome to write a full entry on the Triboelectric Series if they want

Thanks for all your help everybody

I can't find "every few meters" anywhere now either. Perhaps it was in a sentence that you have since deleted.

Good work, GB! Thanks for being so patient with all our nitpicking.

Traveller in Time trying to stop adding new ideas
"It was not in the entry, just had one (alarm going) last night.



now a real ' Babe entry' "

Ref Footnote 1:

'As you slide across a car seat you can generate up to 20,000 volts!' I think you already intimated in the Entry that the generation of static electricity by rubbing of surfaces is a common misconception.

It may be better to re-word this as (something like): Getting up from a car seat can generate a potential difference of up to 20,000 volts.


Incidentally, under funstuff to do with S.E. you could mention that, if you pull of a strip of sellotape (very rapidly) in a darkened room , you will see flashes of light due to charge separation. (You mneed to wait in the dark for a minute or two first,for your eyes to become accustomed to the dark.
It's called 'troboluminescence' (from the Greek word 'to rub', if I recall correctly)

What, no smiley? What are they at?

RBA1 you have our heads spinning. I can only see more contradictions in what you've just posted.

I meant triboluminescence (e.g. of Murphy's Law, that the only miss-spelt word in a sentence will be the most important one!

But does rubbing produce a charge, or not? There's the rub.

Yes, rubbing does produce a charge. If I put a balloon against my jumper, then put it against the wall, it will fall to the ground. If I rub it against my jumper, then put it against the wall, it will stick. The more I rub, the better it will stick. So rubbing definitely produces charge.

Traveller in Time complicating simple things again
"The charge always was there, you only seperated it by rubbing "

Well, there isn't a contradiction in what I posted. It's just that, in days of yore, people OBSERVED that when some substances rubbed together (the effects of) static elecricity were produced - amber for example. Hence the misconception that rubbing produced static electricity. Modern science tells us that it is the charge separation, caused when two surfaces are pulled apart that produces a p.d. between the surfaces.

Personally, I think it's rather an academic argument. Another intereting example of triboluminescence is the flashes of light observed if one crushes a polo mint/lifesaver between a pair of pliers in a darkened room. (lso the colour of the flashes changes according to the flavour of the mint - classic, spearmint etc). This is interpreted as due to static electricity produced when crystalline sugar molecules RUB against each other.

So to recap, personally I'm happy with the rubbing interpretation; but just to keep the science 'politically correct'(and to make the statement consistent with what went before) I suggested to write it as 'the charge separation produced when a person vacates a car seat'.

Hope this makes sense?

No. It's rubbing that separates the charged particle. Charge is a build-up of charged particles. The charge is created by the rubbing.

In a reference which I gave GB, and whuich she made use of, the 3rd sentence says (something like)'Static Electricity i not caused by friction, but is due to the position of the substance in the tribo-electric series'

http://www.school-for-champions.com/science/staticexpl.htm